I know I am nowhere near pro level yet, I just started putting in hardcore practice hours last week, so I have yet to really put the time in. Thank you or the kind words, hopefully I can make something out of this

1) Halo 3 was not "stripped down" the only difference between the default game and MLG was radar, starting weapon (which you the options for BR starts too) certain weapon and power up placement. Hence it's popularity, it was EASY TO UNDERSTAND. That is the key.

2) Comparing Balance in LoL and Halo is a poor example. Balance a MOBA vs an FPS are two totally separate mindsets, and Riot has a proven track record of actually doing proper balance vs 343 doing anything.

3) Making it approachable does not necessarily make it non competitive. Approachable =/= easy. Approachable just means you can hop in and understand how it will work based around your previous experience playing the game at default settings. LoL for example, is very approachable, but you will be raped b a good team, or even a good player if you are bad. Does that make it any less approachable? No, it just means that the skill gap exists whilst being easily approached.

4) Every rifle is NOT an option when a game is based around picking your weapon. When you need to go find your weapon, it is not a choice, especially if there is only 1 of those weapons and two people want it.

Most importantly, the main reason Reach and Halo as a whole failed is because no one watched it. Were there many factors that went into that, yes, but that is the main reason. So no, it is not ignorant, because it is the main reason, there are numbers to back it up (4k concurrent at Cbus 2012 and 40k Concurrent at Dallas) AGL barely topped 4k and that was the basic concurrent viewership for all of 2011.

MLG is a business, and all eSports leagues have to balance between competitive settings and something that viewers will watch. With stuff like SC2 and LoL that is easy, as they were built with that in mind. Halo 4 on the other had, must balance between what the average player plays (IS, Big Team IS, CTF etc) and what is most competitive. Reach already proved that the competitive community alone can not sustain Halo as a pro circuit title, so when designing settings, you must balance out being competitive, approachable and watchable.

These settings are more stripped down than the default slayer pro playlist was and that thing was taken out a few weeks ago for low population. I believe that competitive settings should be a slightly stripped down version of default, that is how competitive settings work, but not to this extent. Have every rifle be an option, have armor abilities be on map pickups (ie turn them into power weapons), don't just remove them because "it's not Halo". Competitive Halo will die (and is dieing) if this mindset continues.

I never said it looks good or plays well competitively, I said that about Reach v7. Look at what happened, we had no events until Halo 4. With how things are going, it won't even be picked up by MLG for the circuit seeing as no one is watching. In this day in age, you have to have viewers, and no one will want to watch something that PLAYS NOTHING LIKE THE DEFAULT GAME. Did you not learn the lessons from Reach?

Haha I'm not angry, I actually have had to prove my qualifications before, so the question didn't surprise me. I mean definitive Halo experience as in what Halo 1 created and Halo 2 did as best it could. For Halo to work with insta spawn, we would need to go back to Halo 1 and change how Halo is played

I am not saying there can't be both, but with ranks and ranked playlist coming soon, there has to be a distinction. With how Halo plays, instant respawn would have to go for ranked playlists. Because I have lost games because instant respawn put the guy I just killed 10 feet away from me while I was half shields from our battle 3 seconds earlier.

Is it fair if I de-rank because I lost the second fight, even though I had no choice in how it started? Is it fair he gets an unearned win because he didn't have to fight me at full strength because of a bad spawn system?

For social playlists, and even stuff like Big Team, I agree, it is a good thing and allows for speedier fun. But when it comes to anything that would fall under ranked playlists (basically the ranked playlists from Halo 2/3) it will not work.

Well I certainly won't be able to code Halo 5, or draw the next creature they will unveil, but I know how Halo multiplayer works inside and out. I should have mentioned "Gaming since I was 4", I did forget that. What other qualifications would you like?

I am fine with instant respawn in more social gametypes (BTIS, Action Sack, etc) but even in a slayer game (and I think I will make episode 1a to kind of touch on this) the entire notion of a spawn timer after death is supposed to be a punishment and a lesson.

Your punishment is that you are now one death closer to losing, sit for 5 seconds and think about that. It is also a chance for the enemy team to capitalize on what they earned (a kill) which means one less opponent, allowing for a set up, power weapon grab etc. That is a core aspect of Halo, the better team/player is rewarded and you (speaking generally here) are not.

The lesson is "ok, how do I avoid this death in the future?" Was my positioning bad, did I miss shots I normally hit, did I miss every shot, was I alone vs. with my team, was their push better, was our setup weak, did I chase etc etc. And that is how you learn. You don't get better at anything if there isn't incentive to not do poorly again.

Going back to the CoD example in my video. In Halo it is a spawn timer and all of the above mentioned things. In CoD, you lose your killstreak, and for the more expensive ones (Nukes, MOABs, VTOL Warships) that is a hefty punishment for death. What do you take from that? A lesson in how not to die, even though it exists in an instant respawn system.

From those lessons and punishments, we learn, get better and they happen less and less. And when they do happen, you then understand how to look and analyze what went wrong and learn from it again.

The Boltshot as it exists now (and with how everyone has learned to use it) is fine. As a secondary, it may be a little OP, but if you're good enough, it shouldn't bother you. I feel it would be better suited to an on map pickup (ala mauler in Halo 3) because it is a mini power weapon.

PV on the other hand needs to go as an AA. I think it can be a map pick up (again, making it a power weapon/up) and it is something to be fought for. When that happens, the match flows better because one team gains an advantage and the other team must now out play them, thusly increasing the competitive nature, and imo fun of the game.

When you play 4 guys with PV, the only thing you can do it sit back and have them come to you, because incentive for movement is zilch. When it is something to be fought over, the incentive to move and take control, and then use strategically allows for more variety in gameplay

I disagree, there is a vocal minority certainly, and I do believe that they are too elitist and have their heads up their asses sometimes, but it isn't just them asking for no instant respawn. Most of the "communities" are: Big Team Battle, Forgers, Girffball, Competitive Players and casual players alike.

The issue again is it changes the nature of the game. Griff ball is sort of like football, but when you get tackeled, you have to stay down for 5 seconds. That 5 seconds is very important to the attackers, as it allows them a chance to score, move into better position etc. With instant spawn, their kills are meaningless and almost all of the strategy that goes into griffball (blockers, attackers, sword vs hammer, timing respawns etc) goes out the window as when you kill someone, they will just respawn and be ready to defend again. It goes from strategic play to zergling rushes and whoever rushes best or get's the luckier break one way or the other wins.

In any playlist or community that lowers the bar for the game, because almost all of the strategy that has been refined and hammered out for Halo goes out the window. While I don't disagree with you that instant respawn CAN make a game more fast paced, in Halo 4 it does not, as the system is poorly designed. And while for competitive/MLG/Griffball/whatever customs I feel like playing I would want no instant spawn (call me old fashioned :P) I care more about the system working in MM first.

That's an issue though, in an Obj game, deaths need to be heavily punished (whether by your spawn post death or a long respawn) because a death in a slayer is punishment as is: you are one death closer to losing.

In oddball, that punishment is near non-existent, which is why I have an issue with instant spawn as it exists now. You can have instant spawn in reg MM, as long as the spawn system is designed around it, which it is not, so yes, while you can win by proper placement and beat a zergling team, there isn't anything that rewards that more than just zergling rushing. That is my issue, you aren't shown that while one can work (zergling) the other works better (proper setup and team play) so the incentive to learn and win are gone.

If you are watching a team who knows how to play vs. a team with no clue then yes, that is boring as shit. But having an understanding of even decent oddball play/strategy and watching two good team go at it is one of the most intense games you will ever watch. I don't know if you are super into the competitive scene at all, but look up Neighbor last second oddball win Halo 3 to see what I am talking about.

If you're not big into MLG, then that's fine, I can respect your opinion on it

You sacrifice as much time as it takes to press X. And while I agree that would be true if the spawns were better balanced (the just use slayer spawns for everything and it is broken as shit) then yes, instant respawn would not be as big of an issue. But when I am playing Haven ball and we kill 3 of their team and are all 1-2 shot and are holding ball on bottom main ramp (blue spawn default) and then all spawn bottom red/blue ramp and can charge us before our shields are back, then yes it needs to go

If they actually balanced the spawns to play for OBJ, then instant spawn would be less of an issue, but one that is not as rage inducing. I can't tell you how many times my team is setting up for a flag pull on adrift or solace, we kill their whole team, pull the flag and because we "blocked" the spawns on their flag, they spawn on our flag......they get a free pull because we played the game strategically.